Berndt Koberstein

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Berndt Koberstein (born August 31, 1956 in Bremerhaven ; † July 28, 1986 near Matagalpa , Nicaragua ) was a German trade unionist and communist . It was in 1986 while carrying out a humanitarian aid project in Nicaragua by members of the right-wing guerrilla grouping Cons murdered.

Life

Berndt Koberstein grew up in Freiburg im Breisgau and attended the Staudinger grammar school there, which he had to leave against his will after completing the eleventh grade. During his subsequent apprenticeship as a machine fitter, he became a member of IG Metall and was active as a youth representative. Influenced by his experience in work and trade union, he developed into a communist: In 1974 he joined the Socialist German Workers' Youth (SDAJ), in 1975 the German Communist Party (DKP).

When he was not taken on after completing his apprenticeship, Koberstein worked for two years as a shift worker at Ford in Cologne . After his return to Freiburg, he had to give up his job for health reasons and completed retraining as a dental technician , but remained unemployed.

Humanitarian work in Nicaragua

In 1983, Koberstein went to Nicaragua for the first time as part of a DKP brigade and worked there for some time in the "Carlos Fonseca" brigade on setting up the "Los Muchachos" printing plant of Juventud Sandinista, the youth organization of the FSLN . The country previously ruled by dictatorship had only liberated itself through a revolution a few years earlier . One year after his first trip, the Freiburg doctor Albrecht "Tonio" Pflaum was murdered near Wiwilí by the Contras , a group of paramilitary rebels that were heavily financed by the USA and were supposed to overthrow the new government (→ Contra War ). As a result, a circle of friends for the deceased Pflaum was founded in Freiburg, on whose behalf Koberstein went back to Nicaragua as a project manager in 1984 to set up a drinking water supply for Wiwili.

Memorial plaque on the Wiwili Bridge in Freiburg

death

After several months of working on the water project, Koberstein was on his way back from the provincial capital Matagalpa when he and his companions were attacked by members of the Contras. Together with two other construction workers and three Nicaraguans, he was shot dead from an ambush. Koberstein was buried in Matagalpa. At the beginning of August 1986, the DKP chairman Herbert Mies asked Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl to take steps to enable an investigation into murder . Whether such investigations were ever conducted in the Koberstein case, and if so, where, is unknown.

Aftermath

In 1988 a friendship between the German city of Freiburg im Breisgau and the Nicaraguan city of Wiwilí was made. In 2015 Wiwilí became the official twin city of Freiburg. A plaque on the Wiwilí Bridge commemorates Berndt Koberstein as well as the doctor Albrecht Pflaum . Furthermore, a preschool and elementary school is named after him in Matagalpa. The water pipeline planned by Koberstein was completed in 1990.

In May 2012, the € 10,000 Berndt Koberstein Prize for Coexistence and Solidarity was awarded for the first time in Freiburg . The first prize winners are the South Baden Action Alliance against Deportations and the artist Richard Schindler .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.berndt-koberstein-preis.de/p/berndt-koberstein.html
  2. ↑ http://www.badische-zeitung.de/freiburg/vor-25-jahren-wurde-berndt-koberstein-in-nicaragua-ermordet--47965659.html
  3. ^ Wiwili on Freiburg.de. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .
  4. ↑ http://www.berndt-koberstein-preis.de/p/preis.html
personal data
SURNAME Koberstein, Berndt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionist and communist
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremerhaven
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1986
Place of death Matagalpa (city) , Nicaragua